Amendment One would only increase legal gaps

TO THE EDITOR:

To get a Domestic Violence Protection Order in North Carolina, “a civil order that provides protection from someone who you have/had a ‘personal relationship’ with,” one must be seeking protection from:

Your spouse or ex-spouse

A person of the opposite sex with whom you live or used to live

Someone you are related to, including parents, children, grandparents and grandchildren, over the age of 16

Someone with whom you have a child in common

A current or former household member

Someone of the opposite sex whom you are dating or have dated

Notice something missing? Already in North Carolina there is a huge gap in our legal system for the LGBTQI community. Amendment One would only give this gap more depth and permanence.

Domestic violence is certainly not limited to a man and a woman or “household members.” Why should protection by the law be so limited?

Here are some statistics on domestic violence in the LGBTQI community:

In a study noting the rate of intimate-partner violence among men, 39 percent of those interviewed reported being battered by a partner in the past five years.

In a similar study with individuals who identified as lesbian, more than 50 percent report being abused by their partner in their lifetime.

In another study with individuals identifying as transgender or intersex, it was reported that “50 percent of respondents had been raped or assaulted by a romantic partner.”

And violence is not only physical. It’s emotional, spiritual, physical and psychological. Violence is violence, and it needs to end, no matter what a person’s orientation. Just something to think about when all the voting begins.

Lindsay Larison ’13
Nursing